AP Literature

Hello, and welcome! To prepare for the upcoming school year, you will have the opportunity to read a wide variety of short stories to prepare you for the first units of the fall semester that will focus on ensuring you have a solid foundation in the basic elements of fiction.

AP Literature-Summer Reading 2018-19.pdf

Directions:

1. FIRST, go to Schoology.com and register for the 2018-19 AP Literature Course Page using the following access code: HHXTD-PQCBW

2. SECOND, read How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Foster, Lexile 1150)

3. THIRD, read each of the 18 short stories below. They are all available on the Schoology course page in the summer reading folder. As you read look for examples of the literary principles discussed in How to Read Literature Like a Professor.

4. FOURTH, create an illustrated index card for each chapter in HTRLLAP that:

a. summarizes the literary principle discussed.

b. includes a detailed example from a short story below.

c. clearly identifies universal themes and abstract ideas (provided on the back of this page).

Why?: The first unit of the 2018-19 school year assumes you have read the assigned texts and are familiar enough with them to pair them with thematically similar poems.

Short Stories

  • “The Most Dangerous Game” (Richard Connell, 1924)
  • “Hunters in the Snow” (Tobias Wolff, 1982)
  • “The Child by Tiger” (Thomas Wolfe, 1937)
  • “The Destructors” (Graham Greene, 1990)
  • “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” (Ernest Hemingway, 1936)
  • “Miss Brill” (Katherine Mansfield, 1920)
  • “A Rose for Emily” (William Faulkner, 1930)
  • “Miriam” (Truman Capote, 1945)
  • “One of These Days” (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962)
  • “The Necklace” (Guy de Maupassant, 1884)
  • “Sweat” (Zora Neale Hurston, 1926)
  • “The Wallet” (Andrew McCuaig, 2001)
  • “Born of Man and Woman” (Richard Matheson, 1950)
  • “Birthday Party” (Katherine Brush, 1946 )
  • “A Jury of Her Peers” (Susan Glaspell, 1917)
  • “The Story of an Hour” (Kate Chopin, 1894)
  • “Young Goodman Brown” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1835)
  • “The Minister’s Black Veil” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1832)

Universal Themes in Literature

Ø A human being’s confrontation with nature

Ø A human being’s lack of humanity

Ø A rebellious human being’s confrontation with society

Ø An individual’s struggle toward understanding, awareness, and/or spiritual enlightenment

Ø An individual’s conflict between passion and responsibility

Ø The human glorification of the past/ rejection of the past

Ø The tension between the ideal and the real

Ø Conflict between human beings and advancements in technology/science

Ø The impact of the past on the present

Ø The inevitability of fate

Ø The evil of unchecked ambition

Ø The struggle for equality

Ø The loss of innocence/disillusionment of adulthood

Ø The conflict between parents and children

Ø The making of an artist in a materialistic society

Ø The clash between civilization and the wilderness

Ø The clash between appearance and realities

Ø The pain of love (or what passes for it)

Ø The conflict of good vs. evil

Ø The human’s ability to persevere and survive

Ø Facing prejudice/hatred

Ø The importance of relationships to humans’ happiness/fulfillment

Ø The conflict of making difficult decisions

Ø Exhibiting courage

Ø The individual’s ability to confront fears

Abstract Ideas in Literature

· Alienation/ Loneliness/ Solitude

· Ambition/ Dreams/ Regrets/ Achievements

· Appearance/ Reality/ Perception

· Betrayal/ Disloyalty/ Unfaithfulness/ Deception

· Chance/ Fate/ Luck/ Destiny

· Children/ Innocence/ Purity

· Coming of Age/ Change/ Epiphany/ Initiation

· Courage/ Cowardice

· Custom/ Tradition/Culture

· Defeat/ Disappointment

· Despair/ Anguish

· Dreams/ Fantasies/Illusions

· Duty/ Honor/Commitment

· Education/ Learning/ Inspiring

· Escape/ Renewal/Both Physically and Psychologically

· Exile/ Disillusionment/Abandonment

· Family/ Parenthood/ Childhood

· Forgiveness/ Understanding

· Free will/ Willpower

· Competition/ Victory/ Defeat

· Greed/ Avarice/ Generosity

· Grief/ Loss/

· Guilt/ Repentance/ Confession

· Home/ Haven /Sanctuary

· Honesty/ Dishonesty/ Deceit

· Honor/ Pride/ Patriotism

· Hope/ Optimism

· Identity/ Conformity

· Individuality/ Narcissism

· Instinct/ Primitive Instinct/ Noble Instinct

· Journey/Psychological/ Physical Journey

· Law/ Justice/ Punishment